Indigo Girls' Amy Ray on exploring guitar tunings, 1997

I just turned to tunings as an alternative, you know, to have fun with it. “Center Stage” [from Indigo Girls] was in open D. I remember hearing the B-52s, that guy Ricky [Wilson]--he died. He played every song they had in a different tuning. He never played anything in standard tuning, and I just remember thinking about that--it was really inspiring. The guitar became an endless spectrum at that point. I’m not a really good guitar player, so to change tunings opens up new worlds for me.

From the book Rock Troubadours.

You can read more thoughts from Amy Ray (including news about the Indigo Girls' deal with Hollywood Records and their collaboration with Mitchell Froom) at her personal Web site.